More than any other superhero, Batman is known for his car. In fact, he’s one of the few major superheroes to even have a car worth a damn, anyway. I think I once saw Superman parking a Geo Prizm. That’s why the Batmobile is so important, and why there’ve been so many of the things.

With the new Batman vs. Superman (I think it’s a courtroom drama) movie coming out, we’ve now seen some sneak peeks at the all-new Batmobile. But to put the look and design of that Batmobile in perspective, it’s good to see just how many came before it — and it’s no joke.

Using the excellent Batmobilehistory site as a reference, here’s a nice big chart of some of the more important or interesting Batmobiles since the very first one — the only red one, too, a 1941 Graham-Paige-looking convertible with a fancy bat hood ornament.

You can see how things developed over the years, generally staying just a few steps ahead of the state-of-the-art in auto design, save for a bit of time in the ‘70s when Batman was just buying off the lot.

Advertisement

Anyway, it’s all pretty fascinating. And here it is nice and big if you want to see it that way. Enjoy!

This post was originally published May 13, 2014 and has been reposted in memorial of the death of Adam West.